


Promise Me It Will Be Alright, Even If You Can't Be Sure

by puffinmuffin13



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Crying, F/F, Hurt/Comfort, Lesbian Harukawa Maki, Post-Game(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:07:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25543348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/puffinmuffin13/pseuds/puffinmuffin13
Summary: Maki hated crying.
Relationships: Harukawa Maki/Yumeno Himiko
Comments: 2
Kudos: 22





	Promise Me It Will Be Alright, Even If You Can't Be Sure

**Author's Note:**

> Written per request on my Tumblr (himiko-yumehellno).

Maki hated crying.

Before, in her fake past, she had a good reason that was "I'll get punished" as a reason not to cry. Crying was weakness; she wasn't cut out to be an assassin if she did it. She couldn't cry, shouldn't cry – it was repeated and taught to her until it screamed in her head like a warning bell whenever the idea even crossed her mind, or when someone else cried.

The first time Maki cried in "years," she was crying for Kaito.

But... She had to put quotation marks around that "years." Maki had no idea how long it had actually been, considering she couldn't remember her past. She couldn't remember the parents she apparently had, nor the photographs on their walls, nor the quiet but sweet girl they had before she marched off to a possible death and became Maki.

Maki hated that, too. That was why she ran away to move in with Himiko.

Maki's shoulders shook as she sat down in the kitchen nook, trying to focus on not spilling her maple syrup on her skirt as she poked at her waffles with a fork. Her vision was trying to become blurry, but Maki wouldn't let it; wouldn't let those tears cross the threshold. She wasn't allowed, wasn't allowed, couldn't do that –

... Wait. Wasn't she allowed?

Maki paused in her slow decimation of her breakfast via poking, and huffed out a curse. She got caught up in her goddamn fake backstory's fake rules again. Would she ever move past that?

Maki bit her tongue and continued "eating" (if by eating you meant not eating) her pancakes. Whatever; just because she'd found out all her conditioning was made up doesn't mean she liked crying. It was always messy for her, with snot and hiccuping and a mixed feeling of distress and rage. Maki would dive into a time she'd shown this, but it was made up, and she'd rather not think about it.

Because if she did, a bunch of other fake emotions came too.

Maki paused, staring at her food for a moment before eventually stabbing a small corner and sawing it off from the rest of the waffle. Putting it in her mouth, Maki could taste the strawberry syrup Himiko loved, and her eyes snapped over to the cracked-open door that led to Himiko's room.

Hm. Team Danganronpa had been able to create a lot of fake emotions, somehow even making Maki have a "crush" on Kaito that was really just admiration, platonic love, and a touch of possessiveness cooked up by whoever designed her character. It made Maki's skin crawl; she was much happier living with Himiko, someone she actually loved.

There were some steps coming from the other entrance to the kitchen, and Maki looked up to see Himiko there, still in her nightgown, and a surprised look on her face.

"Good morning. Sleep well?" Maki made absolute certain her voice wasn't shaking, because she was fine, damn it, but Himiko shook her head, hesitated, then nodded, and shook her head again. Maki watched her in mild confusion.

Eventually, Himiko seemed to give up on whatever answer she was trying to give, and she sat down in the breakfast nook next to Maki, raising one hand to cup her cheek. "Maki," she said quietly, "you're crying. Are you okay?"

She was – ack. Maki jerked away from Himiko's touch, cursing herself for getting so distracted by the past that she didn't notice her vigilance had wavered. "I'm – fine," she said, and refused to acknowledge how her voice cracked while saying that. "Just fine."

"Hey, I thought Kokichi was the liar in this class," Himiko joked, but a light sob tore its way out of Maki's throat at the name, and Himiko seemed to realize her mistake. Cupping Maki's other cheek, she turned Maki to face her, and it was at that moment the tears started falling.

"I'm sorry," Maki tried to apologize, because she was supposed to be moving on, she was supposed to be recovering, she wasn't supposed to be thinking about the past – but Himiko threw her arms around her neck and tucked her head under Maki's.

"Don't," Himiko said quietly. "Don't apologize for letting your feelings out. You don't need to pretend you're fine. You can let your emotions out around me, okay? It's hard, I know. I..." Himiko paused to take a shaky deep breath. "It's awful and I hate it too. We don't – we don't have to pretend everything's fine when it's not, you know? It's – it's gonna be okay," Himiko promised, breaking down into sobs of her own, and Maki was frozen, staring down at her.

The words sounded vaguely like something Tenko said, right before she sealed her death, and Maki sobbed again, harder this time, wrapping her arms around Himiko and not even caring when her plate slid off her lap to fall on the floor, surely making a mess even bigger than the one Maki was right now.

Maki hated crying.

But that didn't mean she never cried.


End file.
